Sports
NHL Pulls its Players from 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics
Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL, announced yesterday that the league will not send its players to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics because COVID-19 concerns have been raised, as the sport entered a hiatus following the outbreak of the Omicron variant.
Because of recent COVID-related events, the NHL’s regular-season schedule has been profoundly disrupted by 50 games already postponed through Dec. 23. Therefore, Olympic participation is no longer feasible, Bettman said in a statement.
Last September, the NHL reached an agreement to pause its regular season during the Olympics in Beijing in order to accommodate the top players from around the world. However, the league had the option of withdrawing from the agreement if disruptions due to COVID-19 forced games to be rescheduled.
In an attempt to control COVID-19, the NHL accelerated the holiday break from Wednesday through Dec. 27 in order to shut down operations.
The NHL had until Jan. 10 in order to withdraw from the Feb. 4-20 Olympics without facing any financial penalties.
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In a statement, Luc Tardif, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said, “We are disappointed in this decision by the NHL and NHLPA, but recognize the circumstances that led to this action.”
As a result of COVID-19, the NHL schedule was drastically affected almost overnight, and we understand that the league’s decision was in the best interest of the players’ health and safety.
Additionally, players, who had negotiated a return to the Olympics into the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), we’re very disappointed in the decision.
The NHL players have been eagerly awaiting the Winter Olympics since the CBA extension was reached 17 months ago, according to NHL Players’ Association Executive Director Don Fehr.
Up until very recently, it appeared we were on a clear path to travel to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Sadly, COVID-19 has intervened, forcing dozens of games to be postponed during this month alone. Regardless of how much we would like this to not be the case, we must reschedule these games during the Olympic period.”
The NHL has announced that it will reschedule games that have been postponed during the Olympic window.
According to a spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, “we know that the players were extremely eager to participate in the Beijing Olympics.”
Obviously, we are disappointed for them, and our hearts go out to them.”
